Teal and Prussian Blue: Showdown
by SteelDolls
Summary: Takes place after Teal and Prussian Blue: Youth Shelter. Warnings: Violence, may be more warnings. Miku x Kaito pairing.
1. Chapter 1

A teenaged girl with long, teal-colored twin pigtails practically flew up the flights of stairs to a rather small apartment in the inexpensive part of town.

The apartment was on a higher level floor, and there was no elevator to make the trip easier, but by now, she was used to the stairs, and did not mind them a bit. A small plastic bag containing a few groceries was held in one of her pretty hands.

The apartment door was unlocked when she tried it, so she knew that someone was already inside. An energetic smile bloomed on her youthful face as she burst into the room, enthusiasm in her step. Expecting a joyful welcome back was the best part of her day. It didn't happen every day, because life was frequently busy. Days that she could bring food home to contribute to dinner was not something that happened every day, either.

"Kaito! I'm home!" Miku beamed as she looked around the small apartment. Barely more than a bedroom with a small kitchenette to one side, and an equally small bathroom with a shower and bath combo attached to the other side, there wasn't much to look at.

The value of the place was in more than just a place to be safe and warm and clean. It also was strongly related to the other occupant of the place... or at least, that was usually the case.

Miku's beaming smile faltered as she looked around. Kaito, the kind, blue-haired college student who had become someone special to her in the past few months, was nowhere to be seen. No friendly voice rejoined her calling out. Kaito was not in the kitchenette, either. And the bathroom door was ajar, so he clearly wasn't in there, either.

"Did you forget to lock the door on your way out?" Miku wondered out loud, brow furrowing in disappointment. "That's not so smart, Kaito. What if someone came in while we were both away?"

Miku stood for a moment, then sighed, and went to put the groceries into the kitchen. Maybe she could still surprise him when he came back, himself, with a hot, home cooked meal.

"He's sweet, but not much of a cook at home," Smiling fondly in the memory of the first time they had "officially" met, and the jokes they had shared about him burning what he made, were mostly teasing exaggerations. Kaito's experience at the soup kitchen had taught him how to cook just fine. And to be fair, he helped in some fashion with every meal that they shared, when both of them were able to be at home together. But it was fun to tease, so they continued the jokes.

Miku being able to surprise Kaito at home by getting there first was a new thing for her. It had only been a little over a week ago that Kaito had handed her a copy of his apartment key with a soft, shy smile to his eyes, and an offhand comment of, "Just make sure you lock up well if you're still asleep when I leave in the mornings. Then you can come home freely, even when I'm kept late at work or school."

"It's amazing how things can change so quickly," the teal-haired girl stared at her hands for a long moment... took a breath, and banished some other, slightly older memories that were far less pleasant, of how things had been just before she'd met Kaito. Before she'd come to this city. And... before she'd met up with the local chapter of the so-called main "girl gang" of the area, the Punk Ravens, who had helped her, almost from the start.

Things on that front had been pretty rough, lately. Miku had been spending much less time with her friends there lately, now that she had a home base with Kaito at his apartment, but hearing secondhand stories about skirmishes with other nearby gangs put her on edge. One in particular had been giving the girls a lot of trouble recently, but any of them could have a flare up... start a turf war, any time. It was an uneasy thought.

The soup kitchen Kaito volunteered at a few times a week was considered outside the Punk Ravens' territory. It hadn't been an issue yet that she went there frequently, but the more face time she spent with the girl gang, the more recognized she became, the more likely it was that it might cause a problem for her- or for her friends- to go there. Yukari, the second-in-command, and her recent cheerleader-in-love, had warned her about it from the beginning.

There wasn't a lot Miku herself could do to help on the Punk Raven front, in regards to the issues they were having with the other gangs, the teal-haired girl thought to herself, trying to stretch away the sudden stress in her still slightly too-thin body. So to worry about it wasn't beneficial. Their leader was tough as brass balls. Miku knew Lola would handle the problems better than anyone could have a right to expect. It would blow over. Things would only get better from here. Lola would make it work.

Nodding firmly to herself as if to confirm that the future was looking good, Miku picked out, rinsed, and sliced into matchsticks a couple of fresh vegetables to go along with the dinner. Kaito liked almost everything, except certain types of tomatoes. He really was easygoing, and easy to please. Glancing at the kitchen clock, Miku wiped her hands off and decided there'd be enough time to finish dinner in a few minutes. She took a break and headed to the bathroom to relieve herself.

"...No," Miku heard herself speaking before her brain could accept what her teal eyes saw as she opened the ajar door the rest of the way.

The shower curtain was ripped. The rings that normally held it up were sprayed all over the floor in pieces. Like someone had grabbed on top it and pulled to try to catch their balance. On the usually pristine floor tiles and porcelain of the sink and toilet, was a messy spray of dried color... and smears and hand prints in something that looked sticky and dark, reddish brown. The bathroom mirror was shattered, at around the height of a man's head. As if someone had grabbed a head by its hair, and smashed it against the reflective glass to stun the person... once... twice.

The broken mirror, too, had a few dried smears and multiple drips of the dried, reddish-brown fluid stained upon it, that matched the rest of the blood in the room in color and viscosity.

And, at the outer edge of the mirror, where one of the glass pieces was less broken than the others, where there were fewer smudges of blood, something had been drawn there in what appeared to be cheap pink lipstick. Miku stepped over and around the mess as carefully she could, feeling numb as she stared disbelievingly at the insignia of the Punk Ravens. And, over the top of it, crossed out, was an intentional, a gory X of flaking brownish-red.

* * *

"It's a message," Miku said dully to her kneecaps as she sat very still on the edge of Kaito's bed. She'd been sitting there for a few minutes, not speaking, and not moving. She wondered in the back of her mind if she should call the police, tell them what the message meant, beg them to help. Cry and scream and beg. But she knew better. It wouldn't be Kaito who was saved, if she called 911. It would be her, the one who loved Kaito, who was arrested, brought back "home." And then... then... no one would care. No one would help. No one would help either of them.

Miku stuffed her hand into her mouth as far as she could jam it in, and bit down as she clenched her eyes shut against her tears, and screamed as quietly as she could through the flesh and bone muffling her sound. Rocking back and forth almost violently as she did this, helpless to stop, tasting the metal of blood running into her mouth, wasn't a good feeling, but the hot burning inability to breathe from panic was her enemy. When she felt like she could trust herself enough, she took her slimy. drool-and-blood-covered fist from her mouth and gasped huge panic breaths until she felt like she could think.

"I have to go," the overwhelmed girl rasped, feeling completely hysterical still. "I can't stay here."

It hit her in her stomach so hard that she found herself throwing up. She barely could grab the trash can next to the bed before she technicolor chunked the remains of her paltry lunch into the plastic bin. Half an egg-salad sandwich. It looked bad, and smelled worse. But it wasn't enough. It took a minute of dry heaving, incredibly painful, her tense stomach muscles sweating with the effort, when she was finished emptying herself.

But a soft sense of non-reality fell over Miku then, and she stood up, not feeling her body parts, looked around, picked up her keys, and then walked outside.

Closing the door behind her was unreal. Like in a dream that drew in strength of reality with each gelatinous step she took, Miku headed down the stairs. She wasn't sure how she had gotten outside, but she came back to herself when she was several blocks over- walking in the direction she'd most recently visited where the main group of Punk Ravens had been staying.

"Lola will help me," Miku said to herself. But she wasn't sure about it. Lola had to look out for everyone, not just her. Not her... who had barely been around lately. And certainly not for Kaito.

"Yukari will help." That felt more real. "Yukari will help."

"...Yukari will help."


	2. Chapter 2

Feeling like she was walking in some sort of nightmare dream, the bustling activity of the street seemed muffled, cotton-y, around Miku, as she walked on legs that felt like they were made of wood. She half expected to get to the Punk Ravens' most recent "spot" to hang out and find nothing. Or maybe find something too horrible to contemplate. But instead, dozens of girls stood, sat, and leaned against crumbling, tagged walls. Amongst them, Miku saw a familiar hair color and style, half crouched down, and the head it belonged to turned to look at her.

"Miku," Lola acknowledged tensely, her face a grim mask. "...Good. You're here. So, you know what's happening."

Miku stared mutely back at her adopted gang's leader. Lola was tall, imposing, confident, self-assured. A strong person who knew the ins and outs of the city, how to get things done, and how to answer hard questions. Miku had seen Lola smile through situations that would curl most peoples' toes, and emerge with more than a few scratches, but still maintaining her positive charisma. Almost as if the Punk Ravens would laugh at anyone trying to give them shit, and show that it was a foolish idea even to think about it.

The other "members" in this chapter of the girl gang- more like a tightly knit community than anything, looked to their leader for those answers. Until today, Miku had never seen the haunted look in Lola's eyes the way she saw it today. As desperate, as panicked as she was to get help for Kaito, in this moment, Miku got a very strong sense that to even utter the bluenette's name would be a very bad idea.

But she had to know, needed help.

"No. Which gang is it?" Miku responded. Even through the numbness of her face, she chose her words carefully. Lola stood up from her crouched position. The girls clustered around their leader backed away slightly. Miku heard the click-slide of metal before the glint of the gun caught her eyes. Lola aimed it away from Miku, and stared hard at the teal-haired girl. Then, looked away, a bitter, dissatisfied look on her face.

"Can you fight?" Lola asked, not answering Miku's question.

Miku suddenly got very angry, the fear and helplessness rising up like dry bile in her throat. It must have showed on her pale face as she opened her mouth to yell- scream- demand answers- but one of the girls next to Lola suddenly stepped forward, and put her face right into Miku's, preempting the explosion of temper that was already on the edge of Miku's stressed-out lips.

"You should have been here!" The green hair on the girl who spat the words out in grieving, enraged tones was spiky and stylized. "What the hell do you mean, who 'IS' it?! We've been up to our asses in this since the day before yesterday, and you come in here, waltzing like a princess, with your fresh new clothes and smelling like roses and talk to Lola like that? Who the fuck do you think you are?"

Miku stepped back half a step, but that was all. She could feel the tears burning in her eyes. Fought them. Fought to battle down the panic the yelling brought on. The worst part was, the girl- Sonika- was right. Or maybe she was all wrong. Maybe it was Lola's fault, for not fixing stuff sooner. Maybe it wasn't the fault of whoever had broken into Kaito's place and taken him away... maybe it was the Punk Ravens' faults.

Small fists clenches at Miku's side as she struggled through her emotions, but she looked down, and the tears leaked out, even through the now-angry, helpless expression on her still-too-young face. Sonika didn't accept this as an answer, and shoved Miku hard enough to unbalance her, to make her stumble, demanding a response in a yell.

"Stop it," Lola said quietly, and Sonika and Miku both looked up at her, then away. Sonika, angrily. Miku, angrily too, but not at the girls.

"Someone came and took Kaito. There's blood. A lot." Miku found the voice to grind out the words, though her throat was too tight now for speaking to be anything but painful. "They drew our sign on the mirror. And X'd it out."

"He's not the only one," Lola responded, looking at Sonika. The other girl exhaled out, as if accepting an unstated order. Taking a long, beautiful, dully-polished knife from where it was strapped on one of her thighs, the dark-green-haired girl handed it over to Miku. Miku took it and stared into Sonika's eyes.

"Get her caught up while we move, Yuzu." Yukari materialized from around a corner. Miku wondered at the 6th sense Lola had, that she could have known. But Lola's next words stopped Miku's thoughts in their tracks, then started them again at top speed.

"...He might be dead," Lola said. "Do you want revenge?"


	3. Chapter 3

"You shouldn't be here," Yukari said so quietly that Miku almost wasn't sure what she had heard. The sound of rubber hitting the ground in a rhythmic pace was hypnotic. Miku felt caught in it, inexorably, unable to do anything but march along in time to the dozens of girls who stepped next to, in front of, and behind her.

And Yukari-san, who stepped in the same rhythm, right by her side.

"Why did you come here? You're better than getting stuck back here," the lavender-haired second-in-command continued to speak, quietly. So no one could hear? No one but Miku? Miku felt foreboding that overshadowed even her terror about Kaito.

"Why, Yukari-san? Please. What's going on? Who is doing this?" Miku asked. Her voice was swallowed up in the footsteps in less than a fraction of a second. "Where are we going? And... who else has... been taken?"

"..." Yukari didn't speak for a moment, and Miku's guts clenched. Her hand around the knife clenched, too. It was sweaty in her hand.

When Yukari did speak again, it was even softer than at first.

"Don't misunderstand me. I think Lola was glad to see another familiar face. Someone we could count on. But, you should duck out now, Miku. I'll explain it to her later," Yukari answered. "Look around you. You haven't been around very much, lately. You don't know this score. And it's okay... it's... because you have a life now. Most of us don't ever really get that. So, don't throw it away on us. There's more than you know happening here."

Miku looked around her.

And, although she had registered that were a lot of unfamiliar faces amongst the girls who marched with them, she hadn't really iseen/i it, until that moment. Just how many girls she had never seen before. Just how forced this rhythmic, hypnotic march seemed. How tense.

"Yukari-san," the teal-haired girl said in a small voice, "I can't leave. No one will help Kaito, if I do. And what about you? And Lola? This is dangerous, isn't it? You... actually need me."

"Nope," Yukari said. "I don't. I'll rescue Kaito. Don't worry, just get out. The next corner. Be ready for it. I've looked out for you. This time... Do this for me."

The footsteps echoed dully against the paved street. The tags on the brick walls were an old cacophony, faded colors of kids who probably hadn't lived there for years now.

"Yukari-san-" Miku started to say, but a sudden arm pushed her. At the same time, a loud noise popped from somewhere. Miku didn't see what it was, because she fell against a mess of broken-down cardboard boxes. They smelled like the shadow of old, rotting garbage. The dumpster beside them was dark green and its paint was chipped and worn away with age. Parts were rusty.

Miku heard the shouts, smelled rather than saw the blood as it sprayed the air, but her instinct made her grab at with the boxes with her hands, and scramble behind the more durable, and more hidden, metal of the dumpster's casement. _Hide._ More bangs, more shouts, and the sound of feet, no longer rhythmic, no longer dull, but loud, smacking against the pavement in between screams and shouts and noises. Miku closed her eyes, even though she didn't mean to. She put her hands over her ears and shook, crouching down as low to the ground, as close to the dumpster as she could.

It wasn't brave. It wasn't helpful. But Miku squatted down, made herself small, and tried to keep herself as quiet as possible. Shaking. Letting the sound of shouts and bangs and feet getting farther away. Letting Yukari and Lola get farther away. Until, half a dozen minutes later, the shaking stopped, and Miku could take her hands away from her ears, teal eyes opening very large. Scared.

And silence.

Miku stood up, walked back the way she had come. Her nerves were on fire.

'What about the Punk Ravens? What about Yukari-san? Lola? I should...' Miku's teeth chattered, and she could not bring herself to finish thought for a good full minute. "I shouldn't let them go without me. What if they need me?"

But when the teal-haired girl's thoughts finally became brave enough to do what her heart was urging, Miku's legs wouldn't listen. Tears burned down her cheeks and she bit her mouth in frustration to keep from screaming as she couldn't make her body obey her. Couldn't go back. Couldn't stop her feet from running away, in the opposite direction.

"Yukari-san," Miku said.

It was a long walk back the way she had come. This time, alone. The closest gas station was only a few minutes further. So, Miku kept walking until she reached it. Stepped inside the store portion of the station. Went straight to the public bathroom. And locked herself in the dingy, filthy, single occupancy stall.

The last person hadn't flushed. Miku sat down on the toilet seat anyways, her skirt still on. She put her face in her hands and cried her fears out.

The smell finally became present enough that the anxious girl wiped her face with her hands, only then realizing how dirty they were. She stood up, turned, looked at the toilet bowl, and couldn't get up enough emotion to be disgusted. She flushed it with what was apparently the single, only piece of toilet paper there, then walked over to the mirror to wash her hands and face.

When she was finished, she looked at the rest of herself. Her well-worn shoes had blood thinly crusted and stained on the bottoms of them.

Miku took them off, stood in her socks, and washed them off under the faucet's cold running water, trying to keep from getting the insides too damp. She used her hands to get the stained part as clean as she could.

Putting her shoes back on, she noticed a stain on the fringe of her skirt. She took it off and washed it, too. The smell of the orange antibiotic soap was harsh in her nose as she scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. When Miku felt it had been washed enough, a long, long time later, she wrung the cotton fabric out as best she could, and re-donned the clothing. Washed her face once more. Washed her hands five more times. Scrutinized herself in the mirror.

Her face was blotchy. Her eyes looked gross, cracked with red and a bit swollen. And there was something wrong with her hair. Miku touched her left twintail. The long hair was smooth and silky except one spot, close to the back of her head. There, it had been cut somehow. Not all of it. But a chunk. As it someone had stepped forward and used a hole punch on her teal hair.

Miku sat back down on the toilet seat and stayed there until the sound of someone banging on the door, demanding to know how long she would be, broke her from her blank thoughts.

There was nothing she could do to fix her hair. So she got up, opened the door, apologized, and left without telling the disgruntled woman who held a fat purse and stared at Miku disapprovingly that there was no toilet paper left in the stall.


End file.
